Holder pattern

Sunday

May 19, 2013 at 6:00 AM

Just hours after last week’s revelation that the Justice Department had subpoenaed phone records from the Associated Press, congressional Republicans began calling for the resignation of Attorney General Eric Holder.

Indeed, Mr. Holder’s departure is long overdue. He has become a liability for the administration, and the AP phone records scandal only re-emphasizes his lack of credibility and competence.

On Tuesday, Mr. Holder asserted that it was Deputy Attorney General James Cole who had authorized the probe of the AP records, and that the action was necessary to investigate a very serious leak of classified information related to a May 2012 CIA operation to stop a bombing plot.

Mr. Holder claimed he had recused himself from the probe because he had earlier been interviewed by the FBI about his knowledge of national security issues related to the matter.

Even if true, that hardly excuses the fact that the Justice Department, under Mr. Holder’s leadership, reached far beyond the bounds of accepted practice and violated the Fourth Amendment by seeking such a broad set of records.

But during questioning by the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Mr. Holder was unable to say when he recused himself, and apparently did not do so in writing.

We should remember that this is the same Mr. Holder who in May 2011 told the same House Judiciary Committee that he had learned about the Operation Fast and Furious gun-running sting operation just weeks earlier. Documents later proved that Mr. Holder had, in fact, been briefed on the operation nearly a year before.

The nation’s attorney general is either out of touch with key operations or unable or unwilling to provide complete and truthful answers to Congress and the American people. In either case, he has become an obstacle to resolving scandals in Washington and restoring confidence in government.